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I just purchased my first RF this year. I have used many brands throughout the years and each brand has their own unique qualities. During COVID I had been doing an array of different gigs. There are many factors that I considered when purchasing. My main criteria was sound quality, price and utility. My first RF purchase was the Sennheiser G4. I decided the 500 series would be the best for multi-purpose use. The 500 series has three main features that dictated my purchase. Those are 50mW output power, a headphone amp on the receiver and mke 2 lav. On a clean frequency the sennheiser sounds great and I have never had any issues with it except an occasional hit, but that is any wireless. The mke 2 sounds great and it gets the job done. I have been using lectro for the past two years in extremely tough environments. While I chose not to purchase lectro it was critical at the Rose Bowl in pasadena, one of the toughest RF environments in pac 12 football. Lectro makes the only transmitter that outputs 250mW. It is the only device that would get above the noise floor and allow me to do a show where my antennas were located at the press box. While I believe digital systems sound better, none of them would make it that distance with all of the RF in the air at the rose bowl. 100mW fell short for me during the season. My first pro purchase Last year I rented an axient system to record an opera. This was a rack mount system with adx1s and dpa 4066. When I returned home and listened on proper monitors I was blown away. I ordered axient the following day. After months of waiting and waiting. I stumbled into a store that had the exact system I ordered in stock. I purchased my first system and I couldn’t be happier. I am still putting it through its paces . While axient is expensive I believe it is the best sounding system available. The only thing that is wrong is the wait time. Shure is the complete package with WWB, showlink, and the array of options. Audio quality is top notch. They offer lemo on all beltpacks. I am fortunate to work at some pretty large venues and all of them use axient.

I talked to lector about the Octopack and the new 4 channel receiver. It is compatible with it and can put out 16 Channels of audio in AES out mode . I want to sell mine so I asked them cause they announced the 4 Ch Slot in Receiver

Did I wrote somewhere about I don't like some of the aspects of the Nexus? I said that was a bad promotion to location sound, IMHO. What kind of attitude, is that sir? Anyway, Paul and Sound Devices have delivered-answered my questions here and somewhere else.

I am in Oklahoma and my current rate has been $700/10 plus $450 basic equipment rental. I am planning to attempt to start at $800/10 and $500/equipment rental in 2023. I have recently updates much of my gear and the prices are through the roof for sound devices and lectro wide band stuff. Also, I understand that labor rates may vary around the country depending on cost of living. That’s understandable. What I think should be consistent across the board for all of us is equipment rental. I believe their should be three levels. Top tier with zaxcom or sound devices pro mixers and lectro or wisycom or zaxcom wires. Then a medium gear rental rate with mixpre and sennheiser or Sony wires. Then a low budget rate for zoom and budget mics.. this way there is still a way for people with lower end gear to get in the business but for them to understand the difference. this is great that we are talking about proper rates.

I most of the time I operated with the mindset of buy once, cry once. I feel the higher end gear is made to last. It may not have the latest bells and whistle, but continues to work all the time. I am not opposed to buying used higher end audio gear. It arrives working and continues so, I am happy. Yes I will admit I am a gear head and like to experience what manufactures are offering. The new SD Nexus/A20 combo is of interest. One area I will default to is in the home workshop, yard, or garage. I do buy from Harbor Freight knowing that the tool or product may not last. If it works for the project I bought it for and continues on, that is fine.

I have no clue what the NATO-BRICS yadda is about, please elaborate.

My worst investment(s) we’re all of the pro-sumer recorder/mixers that I bought to try to avoid shelling out the big bucks for a professional recorder. I had a Tascam HDP2, a DR680, and a couple of others I’ve forgotten about or blocked from my memory. Every gig was a struggle with those. Trying to make them work and do what I wanted consumed way more mental energy than actually recording. Conversely, I think my best investment was when I broke down and ordered a Sound Devices 633. I remember the moment well - I was actually on lunch break at a gig that I had been “using” (read: sweating and struggling with) the HD-P2 on and I got so frustrated that I sat there at lunch and called Trew Audio. I’m not saying that that the 633 solved all of my problems forever but once I got it I could finally trust my recorder to do its work and focus my brainpower on other aspects of the job. -Mike

It's not just failure backup. I do a really wide variety of jobs with all sorts of oddball, often unforeseen setups and rigs, and being able to reconfigure things from separate components is really helpful. I understand that there are mixers who drive a fully -kitted cart every day on their jobs, but note that there are also a lot of soundies who need to be able to make up bespoke rigs for one-off or short term special gigs as well.

Yes, Constantin, having all of your eggs in one basket. Having spares is always a good idea Though most of these products are very robust, Murphy can happen to anyone. Years ago I used Zaxcom wireless, when it worked it was great, but problems did happen when you least expected. I do imagine the current generation of Zax wireless are much better.

Indeed, and that's by design: It will not be a finished product, the aimed community is "1 man DIY production crews" with soldering skills, with a zest of IT literacy. Not many people, I confess 🙂 Sorry to learn this... is this related to the movie industry or related to the tanking EU economy (thanks to NATO-BRICS proxy wars)?

Strongly opposed to this idea. While I think the Nexus is a great product, I‘m someone who likes to have backups. So if my Nexus fails, it means I am all out wireless receivers. With your idea I‘d even be out of a recorder, too. And buying a duplicate setup would be that much more expensive. This is exactly the reason why Nova would never be for me. that‘s a really weird conspiracy theory you‘ve come up with there. Just because you don’t like some of the aspects of the Nexus? Tell me how water- or dustproof is a Scorpio? just because you didn’t like the answer you got? Now you think they don’t care about location sound anymore? That’s a very steep hill you’re climbing there

Excellent! Thank you, Paul!

Hi Larry! That was me who said that. First of all, I’m really glad you made this thread. It’s important to have an open discussion. I’m also glad that you seem open to raising your rates as well! I’m in the NYC market, too… so *you* must be the guy producers tell me “our guy usually does it for $800”, to which I respond “then use your guy” (ok, I don’t actually say that out loud, lol) When you, a seasoned pro who is rarely ever going to make a mistake and always going to provide the best audio possible, quotes $800 all in for a day, it hurts the rest of us mixers. I don’t mind when a beginner charges that much, because if they screw up the job, production will learn to stop being so cheap. But when you quote that much, not only are you leaving a lot of money on the table, but you set a baseline to your clients of what rates should be, and it makes it harder for the rest of us to charge our rates. My $800/$500 post was referring to an opening quote. It’s okay to negotiate down a bit… maybe it’s a boom only job so you knock $200 off the gear, or maybe it’s going to be a one hour interview so you knock $100 off the labor. I would say that portal to portal, mileage, and tolls are a personal preference. If you can get them, that’s great, if you can’t, I don’t think other mixers will say you’re undercutting. I personally don’t often charge them when working in NYC because I live in NJ to save money so I don’t want to lose the job by charging them a $16 holland tunnel toll. But I do charge parking, always, and I’ll do mileage and tolls if it’s outside of the 5 boroughs. I would say if you’re within $200 of $800/$500, you won’t be undercutting, as long as you are not giving away a bunch of free OT or equipment (like 5 lavs and 10 IFBs for $500 is a big no-no). but definitely open with those numbers. Remember, NYC is insanely expensive. You need to make like $200k to get a house and raise a family in the surrounding areas, with a 1-2 hour commute. And producers definitely have the money. I’m sure if you ask your gaffer friends, they are making around the same day rate as us. Camera ops usually make $1000/10. So don’t be the lowest paid person (aside from the PA) on set when audio is half the project! If more than 75% of producers instantly say yes to your rate without haggling, you’re not charging enough. I probably get turned away 50% of the time. It’s okay. Because I only need 2 producers to say yes to $1200 to make the same amount of money as 3 producers saying yes to $800, except I had a day less of work! It was super hard at first, but the more things I turned down, the more things seemed to come. I started quoting “full rate” in January 2020, and I’ve raised my income each year since. In December 2020, at 27 years old, I was finally able to move out of my parent’s house. This year, I was finally able to pay off all my crippling student loan debt. And I finally might be able to buy a house in central Jersey in 2-3 years! Lastly, don’t be afraid when you start quoting these numbers now. It’s slow for all of us now, but that’s why we charge what we do — we save up cash and we can have a nice relaxing winter. It’s definitely easier to get these numbers when it’s busy. But don’t give up. The more people who quote these numbers, the more we’ll get them. Trusting the process is key. By the way, Gotham Sound is having a holiday party this week in Astoria. I hope to see you there!

After reading all your advice I decided to do the discussion with 8 table microphones (Sennheiser ME36 gooseneck) and a wireless lavalier for the keynote speaker and leave out the boom. The recorder would have been my SD 833 (with Dougan Automix). This was mainly for the following reasons: - little time to mic people before the discussion / no assistant to help with miking. - my journey by public transport: only as much equipment as I can carry. - no distraction of the speakers by the boom I would have loved to tell you about the rest of this job, but the job was cancelled/postponed 4 days before the event. I will charge 25% of the quote.

Hey Larry! Fellow NYC based mixer here! Been at it for about 10 years currently. As of late 2022 I’ve been for non union non commercial work quoting $800/10 and $500 base package for a boom, mixer, and two lavs along with parking, tolls, and either mileage or gas (or if coming from my apartment, my Ubers). Any additional gear needed I add on an a la carte basis. For local NYC area jobs (the 5 boroughs), I don’t ask for portal to portal but anything outside of that I always quote for that. This is for any job that would be a “full rate” job and by that I mean any shoot that is a corporate, digital, non profit, reality, and high end documentary shoot. If it’s a commercial job, I charge union scale since non union commercials budget similarly as their union counterparts (In NYC its around $973.25/10 so I round it up to $975/10 labor. Negotiating happens from time to time but I’ve been I’d say about 50 - 60% of the time getting these prices with no pushback. I don’t do half day rates and those on here saying that for “an easy day” they will take less makes things harder for the rest of us. I’ve had many days this year that was a “quick 3 hour interview” but I still get my full 10 hour day rate and gear rental. At worst, I go down to an 8 hour rate at $650/8 and $300 for a boom and mixer package, no lavs plus expenses. Having open conversations about rates are how we raise one another up and do better over time. Those doing $200 - $350 for a base package really need to at minimum go up to $450 base since you’re leaving a lot of money on the table. If you’d want to connect Larry since we’re in the same market and continue the conversation, I’d love to make that happen!

Hey Larry! I always think people having transparent rate discussions is always a good thing, it benefits the industry at large and not discussing rates only serves to help producers keep costs down at our sacrifice. I've been having some similar conversations with steadicam ops and gaffers I know, just for an additional reference point. Ultimately my goal is to provide a premium service and to run an effective business that doesn't cut corners for my clients but in order to do that I don't just need to personally make a living but my business needs to turn a profit too. I feel I charge in way that's fair to both me and my clients. For reference I'm based in Cleveland and mostly live in the commercial, documentary, and corporate world, but occasionally do narrative projects or oddballs. My current rates (plan to raise in 2023) are $750/10 ($900/10 if union commercial) and equipment varies based on the shoot here is a list of what I currently charge for equipment: Mixer/Recorder: $175/each/day Booms w/ Mics: $75/each/day Wireless Booms: $125/each/day Wireless Lavs: $75/each/day Camera Hops: $75/each/day IFBs: $50/each/day Timecode: $50/each/day Slate: $75/each/day It's really all over the place as far as jobs total cost but I have two jobs this coming week. Job 1: Regional commercial with me and my boom op both making $750/10 for labor and an equipment package of 1 recorder/mixer, 1 wireless boom, 5 wireless lavs, 5 IFBs. 3 sync boxes, 1 camera hop, & 1 slate which is $1225 for the day in gear which puts the total at $2725 for the day - $750 for my boom op = $1975 total take home Job 2: Testimonial video at cyc studio on 3 cameras. $750/10 for labor and an equipment package of 1 recorder/mixer, 1 boom, 1 lav, 3 timecode boxes, 1 slate, 8 IFBs, & hardwire mixes. which is $950 which puts the total for the day at $1700 equipment and labor combined. I keep my rates publicly listed on my website that dictates both my rates and terms that I send to every client when negotiating: https://henrirapp.com/sound-mixer-rates/

I will add that there’s a bunch of jobs a year that I send the rate card to and they respond with “that works for us”. So, it’s numbers they see elsewhere and what they have planned for. When I was in Philadelphia, I’d have 40-50 clients a year. Lots of those were people passing through for a day, or a few days. So, it might be different if you primarily have local repeat clients. That said, remember that the government cost of living adjustment for 2023 is 8.7%. That’s the highest in about 40 years. So we all need to bump rates January 1 or we’re falling behind.

I do primarily small commercial and branded content shoots in TX. I've been charging 750/10 and 450/day basic kit of 2 lavs, boom, and a recorder without issue in 2022. The cost of living in Austin has exploded. The matter of experience is a complicated one, but I would rather younger mixers with less experience ask for proper rates than poison the well because of a perceived lack of value due to experience. I think it's incredibly important to talk to the other mixers in your market and try to encourage people to be on the same page about rates.

You can do that docked or not. When docked, all 16 channels pass from Nexus to 888 via the expansion port and so can be recorded as backup on the 888. At the same time, those 16 channels can be routed to the main cart from the 888's Dante port.

Looking for an Arizona-based Sound operator for a video shoot in Sedona, AZ on 12/15 and 12/16 to mix, handle the boom mic, lav set + timecode to sync to the camera (Sony FX6). Shoot includes one talent, speaking to camera, shot outside. Small crew, fun shoot!

Just my 2ct. If I'd want to invest in a 2 to 8 channel wireless system, I'd probably pick the system/family that is most common in my city from rental houses and colleagues if I need temporary replacement or occasional expansion or rent out my units to others. In my case, that would be Wisycom.

Huh, not sure what went wrong there. Here's attempt #2:

I absolutely agree! Its mindblowing they made the UCR411 for 20 years and wireless performance is "up there" with the best of today. I am fairly happy with Lectro boom/Wisy talent and Sennheiser for IFB and some backup channels. I think there is something to be said of having the bulk of wireless in the same brand to make coordinating frequencies easier. Wish I stepped up from my Sennheisers earlier, but hey, I dont beat myself over it. It feelt that a new generation of wireless was on the verge of being launched so I waited and waited and I took a deep breath and ordered the MTP60s and MCR54 when they were released as they checked about everything I could think of. If the 4ch lectro would be in the talks last year, I would have considered it but still think wisy has the edge if I were to pick from scratch. Lectro lacks the last bells and whistles, but they just work (digital hybrid that is). In the meanwhile the paint of the wisys have started to peel off, but I dont have to worry about frequencies at all. Recording on SD, but the reception is so good so I dont really have to pull the cards anyways.

Enjoy it! 🙂